CenterWell's multi-year study of 6,600+ older adults found that 46% lack a sense of fulfillment, with the dip tending to cluster around ages 65 to 67. Most aren't struggling financially. So what's actually driving it?

Someone retires after thirty years and says, almost apologetically, that retirement is more work than expected. They're not wrong. A career's external structure (deadlines, reviews, a schedule someone else set) gets replaced by internal work: maintaining health on purpose, rebuilding relationships, new boundaries at home, new technology, a reinvented identity, and social connection you have to build yourself. Naming these six areas turns retirement into something you can actu